TAIPEI - Taiwan’s military is prepared for any moves China may make around the time President-elect Lai Ching-te takes office later in May, the island’s deputy defence minister said on May 8.
China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has a strong dislike of Mr Lai, believing him to be a dangerous separatist, and has rejected his repeated offers of talks, including one in May.
Mr Lai, like current President Tsai Ing-wen, rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims. Both say only the island’s people can decide their future. Mr Lai, now vice-president, will be inaugurated on May 20.
“Before and after May 20, our nation’s military will uphold all combat readiness requirements and pay close attention to the damaging of regional peace and stability by the other side,” Deputy Defence Minister Po Horng-huei told reporters.
Chinese military activities in and around the Taiwan Strait are destabilising for the whole Indo-Pacific region, Mr Po added in his comments to reporters in Parliament.
China’s Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
During the past four years, China’s military has massively increased its activities around Taiwan, such as by regularly flying warplanes over the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which previously served as an unofficial buffer zone.
In May 8’s daily report of Chinese military activities in the previous 24 hours, Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said six Chinese aircraft had crossed the median line, flying in an area to the west of Taiwan’s Penghu islands, home to a major air force base.
China, which has staged at least two “joint combat readiness patrols” near the island in the past month, according to Taiwan’s Defence Ministry, said it does not recognise the existence of the median line.
Taiwan-based security sources have repeatedly warned that China could show its displeasure with Mr Lai using the military.
In 2022, China held major war games near Taiwan after a visit to Taipei by then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and again in 2023 after President Tsai met Mrs Pelosi’s successor Kevin McCarthy on a stopover in California. REUTERS
